"Electric" was released on 6 April 1987. The album marked a deliberate stylistic change in the band from a Gothic rock to a hard rock band. Rick Rubin, the producer on Electric, had been specifically hired to remake the band's sound in an effort to capitalize on the popularity of hard rock and heavy metal in the 1980s. The album was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

"In 1985 THE CULT finally developed their roots into charts success with SHE SELLS SANCTUARY and LOVE, which brought Top 10 chart positions and gold awards all around the world. This year that succes record has still improved further, with the UK album now well past gold and a Top 4 LP chart entry, with a platinum album and No. 3 chart position in Canada, with a gold record and a hugely succesful tour with Billy Idol in the US. Concert dates in the UK and everywhere sell-out within hours and the dual focal point of IAN ASTBURY and BILLY DUFFY, together with JAMIE STEWART, LES WARNER and now KID CHAOS, is turning listeners into fans around the world."

In 2013 the album was re-released as a double CD set under the title Electric Peace, with one disc featuring the originally released album and the second containing the entire Peace album recorded during the Manor Sessions.

After the breakthrough success of their second album, Love, the Cult began working on a follow-up with producer Steve Brown. In the summer of 1986, they recorded twelve tracks at the Manor Studio in Oxfordshire. These recordings, which came to be known as the Manor Sessions, were to make up a new album, tentatively entitled Peace. However, upon completion of the recording sessions, the band decided that they were unhappy with the sound, and began to look for a new producer.

The band went on to choose Rick Rubin, who was known for producing albums for hip hop artists and thrash metal band Slayer. These new recordings, with a slightly different track-list and running order, became the album that was released.

Although all twelve of the Manor Sessions tracks were initially scrapped, four of them would turn up as B-sides to singles from Electric. A further five of them appeared on a limited edition EP, and with the release of Rare Cult in 2000, the rest of the unreleased Steve Brown-produced tracks were made available, albeit in a limited edition format. They were finally made available on a mainstream release in 2013 as part of the Electric Peace release.